Breast cancer in Israel, 1960–1975. II. Effects of age and origin on survival

Abstract

The effect of age and origin on survival, measured by the life table method, was examined for 10,702 breast cancer patients diagnosed in Israel between 1960 and 1975. In contrast to a major American study, we found no differences in survival between younger and older women with breast cancer. In stages II, III and IV, immigrants of Western origin survived significantly longer than native-born Israeli women and immigrants from other Asian or North African countries. This suggests that the different disease patterns (slow-growing, ‘insidious’ vs fast-growing, ‘fulminant’) may be distributed unequally among the several population groups, favoring women of Western origin. Factors accounting for this unequal distribution are undoubtedly genetic and environmental combined. The identification of groups of women with more aggresive disease may influence decisions about the use of more aggressive therapy.